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Director Pharmacy Department Universidad de Oriente CP: 90500, Santiago de Cuba Cuba FAX 53 22 632689 ricalo{at}csh.uo.edu.cu
Published Online, August 29, 2003. www.theannals.com, DOI 10.1345/aph.1C355
Traditionally, pharmacy education has been oriented to meet social demands, although pharmaceutical service has sometimes been overlooked. This service is no doubt indispensable for the consolidation of any modern national medical service.1
In 1990, the Pharmacy Curriculum took into consideration the development of knowledge and skills comprising clinical pharmacy. Even today, the "expert" working in a drugstore hardly does anything different from that of a clerk. Most of the time, he performs bureaucratic tasks and almost always remains invisible to the patient who could likely seek advice from him.2
Although Clinical Pharmacy is actually taught in Cuban universities, it could be improved by taking into account aspects such as the insufficient attention given to the clinical component in the so-called "Model for the Pharmaceutical Practitioner" and the lack of a curricular conception that highlights the importance of the "Modes of Professional Performance" (methods used by professionals to solve the most general and common problems in professional activity).
There is no Clinical Pharmacy specialization in Cuba, and clinical functions lack adequate treatment when judging our pharmacists' qualifications. Therefore, because there is no clinical practice, pharmacists do not receive pay for these services. A Clinical Pharmacist is not a specialist, and has no official appointment; he is simply a pharmacist appointed to perform those functions.
In Cuba, like in many other countries, the clinical pharmacy movement has arrived at universities, but it has not gone beyond its borders. We have been debating clinical pharmacy for years, but we need to perform clinical pharmacy as well. We need a consciousness in both the employment and academic sectors that it is through these clinical pharmacy functions that the pharmacist acts as a public servant who solves the patient's drug-related problems in a community and society that appreciates these actions.
It is a complex drama in a complex social environment. In it, many actors have a place and a new approach is needed to pharmaceutical education. Putting some goodwill together can take Clinical Pharmacy out of the scholastic debate into real social practice. This is imperative if we want to take a step forward into the future of our profession.
References
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